Whenever I shoot a sporting event. Whether its a cross country run, or a slalom Kayaking course, I always arrive 3-5 hours early if I cant scope out the venue in advance, and either walk the track, or sit and observe light. My positioning for this race was mapped out based on average times from last years nationals, so I could move from the start, to a position on the course that I wanted to shoot, then make it back to the finish in time to capture that. As the official event photographer, capturing the start and finish was far more important than the in between, whereas if I was shooting for a newspaper or the teams themselves, the in between stuff is what they want, so I plan my movement plans based on my client.
Basically, I am a bit neurotic about shoots. When I am hired for a sporting event, I write a list of the type of shots I want, like the images in that blog, I had written on my list "Panning shot - Tight Torso Emotion - Full Body Pack Runners - Finish Emotion - Start Pack - etc" then after viewing the course I mark spots that I think I can best capture these images. For example, this course was surrounded by parking lots, making for horrible backgrounds, so I found one uphill location that allowed me to shoot with nothing but trees in the background. This became my primary "In between" spot, and I planned out 5 different angles I wanted to shoot that spot from, allowing for a maximum variance in images in a short amount of time and laps, while allowing me time to get back to the finish for that.
However, there was the possibility that the sun could break through the overcast, and that would give harsh back lighting to the runners at that spot, so I had another spot planned 400m down the course that would have them running into the sun. Far better to have them squinting, than with dark faces.
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Clubbing Baby Seals since 84' *club club*
British Columbia, Canada.
